Adaptors have been used for many years to create an appropriate connection between a wiper blade and a wiper arm that have incompatible connectors built onto the arm end and onto the blade.
An adaptor is an intermediate component between the wiper blade on the one side and the wiper arm on the other side and, necessarily, comprises two parts, i.e. a first part designed in such a way that it may be removably fitted to the wiper blade and a second part designed in such a way that it may be removably fitted to the wiper arm. The adaptor should be designed in such a way that there is relatively no linear displacement between the wiper blade and the wiper arm while a limited degree of rotation of the blade with respect to the arm is permissible. Unfortunately, there are on the market not only many different types of wiper blades having different styles and dimensions of connectors for connection to an arm, but also there are many different types of wiper arms having different styles and dimensions of connectors for connection to a blade.
One of the results of the large number of types of connectors is the fact that the consumer has great difficulty buying a wiper blade with the right connector that will correspond with the wiper arm mounted on his car. Moreover, the replacement market is very complex requiring dealers to stock not only a large number of types of wiper blades, but also a large number of types of adaptors for converting the different style arm ends to the appropriate wiper blade.
In practice, dealers very often sell, with each wiper blade of a given type and dimension, up to five different adaptors in order to be sure that the consumer gets the adaptor he needs. In spite of all the efforts of the dealers, the consumer is not always satisfied because, in most cases, the principle applied for mounting the adaptor on the wiper blade and on the wiper arm is different for each adaptor and especially for mounting the adaptor on the wiper arm. These mounting difficulties are very real and very frustrating for most consumers.